MICHIGAN STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 401 



wasli "vvas iutended for the stem aud used with great success. 

 He had never examined the roots of the tree, and did not know 

 that the disease attacked that point first. He thought, how- 

 ever, that the great object in all fruit culture Avas to secure 

 maturity in growth before the winter should set in. 



Professor Taylor, of the Agricultural Department, followed 

 Mr. Saunders, and, in a learned and interesting address, ex- 

 plained the microscopic observation of the effect of water upon 

 fruits, their fermentation, and the formation of fungi, the ori- 

 gin of which he regarded to be atmospheric influence chiefly. 



Dr. Hawsly of Kansas said that he had been much inter- 

 ested in the remarks of Professor Taylor, but what he wanted 

 to get at was the origin of pear blight. One theory was the 

 "fungi origin;" another that it was vegetable apoplexy, 

 and that wet seasons produced this more than anything else. 

 The foundation of this disease, he thought, was laid the year 

 before its development. In 1844, he had a young orchard, and 

 on one occasion there came on a heavy north wind and rain, 

 which was followed by snow, and finally with sleet. The next 

 morning the ice was an inch thick upon all the trees. When 

 the spring came, he went out to trim up the orchard, and on 

 nearly all the trees, he found a yellow ring. The cause of this 

 he did not know, but on every tree where the disease or ring 

 appeared, the graft was entirely destroyed and dead. The in- 

 evitable conclusion was that the intense cold had produced 

 this, but what the disease was he did not know. When the 

 spring came on and the young trees yet wet with the winter 

 storms were subjected to the heat of the sun, this it was, he 

 thought, which had done the work. But the disease was at- 

 tributable, he believed, equally to cold as heat. He had been 

 an apple and pear grower for more than forty years, and each 

 year his conclusions in relation to pear blight had been 

 strengthened, — that it originated either from intense heat or 

 cold. 



Mr. Wier next gave his experience of the diseases to which 

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